Snowboarding has been one of the fastest growing sport since 1997 and has become a competitive winter sport in the United States and other countries. It is usually done on commercially operated slopes, which are designed to accommodate many skiers and snowboarders. Snowboarding is only similar to skiing in that it requires a person to slide downhill on top of snow, but it is more like surfing and skateboarding in style and form, and because only a single board is used to traverse the snow by a snowboarder. Market research statistics during the period 1990-2004 have shown that the overall snowboarding population increased by 294 percent during this period (i.e., an average increase of 20% per year). Another statistics for this period (2004-2005) shows that 6.6 million tickets were sold to snowboarders. These statistics reveal vast growth and popularity of the snowboarding sport on the younger generations.
Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a snow-covered slope with both feet strapped to a single board, a “snowboard”. Snowboard bindings attach both of a user's feet about shoulder width apart to a single board using special boots held within a snowboard-mounted binding system, and the snowboarder is standing on a snowboard perpendicular to the snowboard's direction of travel.
A snowboarder uses boots designed especially for the requirements of snowboarding. As with skiing, snowboarding requires that boots be secured to a snowboard by boot binding straps; however, what is very different between skiing and snowboarding is that both feet are secured to a single snowboard, compared to skiing where each foot is attached to its own ski by a damping system. Movements of participant of the two downhill winter sports are also vastly and noticeably different.
As with skiing, snowboarding generally involves the use of chair lifts to carry snowboarders from a base to a summit. At each lift there will be a line of skiers and snowboarders waiting to board the chairlift. Snowboarders experience a burden not experienced by skiers while shuffling over to the chairlift on foot because one foot (the leading foot) remains tied to the snowboard, while the other foot (rear trailing foot) is used to push the user via the snowboard over to the chairlift (similar to how a skateboarder moves himself on a skateboard). Moving while one foot is tied to a snowboard at almost a ninety-degree angle with respect to the direction of travel can be fatiguing, painful, and unattractive given the user's odd attachment by a single foot to their snowboards. By comparison, a skier never removes a boot from a ski binding while moving through a chair lift line.
It is important to reiterate that other than sliding downhill on snow, snowboarding differs significantly from skiing, both in form and in technology. In snowboarding, rather than having separate skis for each foot and poles for each hand, both feet of a snowboarder are held, one in front of the other (or side by side with shoulder width separation), on a single, relatively wide board using a binding system including two boot bindings fixed to the top surface of the snowboard. The primary purpose of the binding system for snowboards is to hold both of the user's boots onto a snowboard during a snowboarder's use of the snowboard on ski slopes. Besides that, the binding system must provide adaptability to various shoe sizes and adjustability of the angle of the boots to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard.
The general construction of a snowboard involves some basic components. Components and features of a snowboard include its core, a top surface, the base or bottom surface, first and second ends (typically upturned and often referred to as a “nose” and a “tail”), and sharp edges along each of the long edges of the snowboard. A core is typically the interior construction of the snowboard. The base is typically the bottom of a board that makes contact with the snow. The long edges of the snowboard can include a strip of metal, tuned normally to just less than 90° that runs the length of either side of the board. The top surface is where the binding system is mounted and is the area that directly supports and secures both feet of a snowboarder (a person) onto the top of a snowboard.
The snowboard can be a thin, slightly hourglass-shaped board that can be ridden down ski runs. Snowboards generally have a length between 140-165 cm and a width from about 24 up to 27 cm or more (dimension that are much shorter, yet much wider than snow skies). The size variants are meant to accommodate many varieties of people, skill levels, snow types, and riding styles. The snowboards are usually constructed with a laminated wood core sandwiched between multiple layers of fiberglass. The bottom or ‘base’ of the snowboard can generally be made of various materials including plastic or coated wood, and can be surrounded by a thin strip of steel as the ‘edge’. The top surface layer can include printed graphics and can be coated with an acrylic. Bindings are separate components from the snowboard that are mounted to the top surface (e.g., or “deck”), though they are a very important part of the total snowboard interface. The main function of bindings is to hold the riders boots (and both feet) in place tightly onto the snowboard so the rider can manipulate and transfer their energy to the snowboard while traveling downhill over snow.
A chairlift is a type of aerial lift, which comprises of a continuously circulating steel cable loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. A chair-lift is a transports system generally used to travel across a mountain side along various posts.
Passengers moving towards for boarding or traveling on a chair lift need to take necessary precautions to avoid injuries. When the passengers are in a stance position and shuffling towards a chair lift for a ride, they need to adjust the bindings accordingly to alleviate pain in ankles and knees. Snowboards can generally provide up to 45° rotation between the toe areas of each of the bindings that are mounted on a snowboard. The binding positions, however, remain fixed once set. The binding position associated in such snowboards can be painful and uncomfortable while a snowboarder is moving along in lift lines and while riding on a chair lift. The stance of the user may look awkward and unnatural. Ideally, bindings would be adjustable in order to alleviate pain in the snowboarder's knee, ankles, and legs because a snowboard remains tethered to a snowboarder's foot while the snowboarder is dealing with chairlift line maneuvering and chairlift usage.
The present inventor has created a snowboard binding that can be rotated temporarily in order to alleviate pain experienced in a user's foot and leg as the user's foot remains tethered to the snowboard during chairlift approach or while standing in chairlift lines, and that can also be hinged from dangling snowboards from a user's leg while the user is riding a chairlift. The majority of prior art binding systems do not focus on managing the impact of chairlift wind over a dangling snowboard and the load it causes on a user's foot. The lack of a hands-free locking and release system limits the capability of prior art snowboards. There is currently no rotatable binding system for the snowboards. Nonexistent is a system that can ease the load on a user's foot and ankle area while shuffling along in chairlift lines. Also, nonexistent is a system that can ease the load on a user's foot while a user is riding on a chairlift. Consequently, a snowboard's weight causes stress on knee and ankle and causes an awkward stance by snowboarders while they move along through chair lift lines. Similarly, the binding position while in lift lines and on the chair lift associated with such systems is painful and is a pulling force while tethered by a binding to the user which is unnatural for the lead ankle. The cascading effect typically results in a binding position that is painful and cumbersome for users while in lift lines as well as when riding on the chair lift.
If two users are sitting next to each other on a chairlift and they use opposite boots as their front boot, the twisting of theft legs due to their respective bindings can cause their snowboards to collide with each other. This is not only painful, but may also be dangerous. Similarly, getting off a chair lift can also be troublesome because the angle at which the user's leading foot (boot) on the snowboard and because the user is bound to the snowboard making it difficult for the user to position the snowboard in line with forward movement of the chair lift to the point of dismount from the chairlift by the snowboarder. If the snowboard is not positioned in a forward direction with movement of the chair lift as the snowboard touches the ground, the user can veer off to one side and run into the person next to the disembarking snowboarder who had been sharing the chair lift. Hence, an improved snowboard binding system is needed in order to provide greater safety and comfort for snowboarders while in lift lines and on the chair lift.
Based on the foregoing, it is believed that a need therefore exists for an improved snowboard binding system that eliminates rotation at the knee and flexion at the ankle, and which can be incorporated with a locking system that can be hands-free. It is also believed a need exists for the snowboard binding system to reduce discomfort and injury when approaching and mounting/dismounting from a chairlift,